Pat Perry (born 1991) is an American painter and street artist based in Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for a series of sketchbooks and 35mm photographs documenting years of itinerant traveling around the United States and painting realistic depictions of 21st century America.[1][2] His practice also includes mural painting, photography, illustration, storytelling, and freight train tagging.[3]

Pat Perry
Born1991
NationalityAmerican
EducationKendall College of Art and Design
Known formural painting
Notable workNational Lilypond Songs, Song and Dance, Which World
StyleAmerican vernacular landscape painting
Websitewww.patperry.net

Early life

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Perry was born in Pontiac, Michigan, and grew up in Comstock Park. His father was a copywriter, and his mother was a remedial teacher. From 2009 to 2012, Pat attended Kendall College of Art and Design, but did not graduate.[4][5]

Work

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During the early 2010s, Perry gained recognition for his series of sketchbooks and photographs collected while traveling around the United States by hitchhiking and riding freight trains.[6][7] His large-scale works and posters have called attention to various social causes through collaborations with groups such as AptArts, No More Deaths, and the UN High Commissioner For Refugees.[2] He collaborated with the Beehive Design Collective on their years-long poster project, MesoAmerica Resiste.[8]

Murals

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From 2015 to the present, Perry created for his large-scale murals on buildings in Belgium,[9] Mozambique,[10] Australia,[11] Sweden,[12] Finland,[13] Kosovo,[14] New Zealand,[13] and Iraqi Kurdistan,[15] as well as several murals in Detroit. His murals depict diverse cultures and landscapes of different parts of the world, often involving humanistic, socially-conscious themes.[16][17] In addition to murals on buildings, Perry has worked on murals on the exterior of a plane, automotive vehicles as well as a skateboard park.[18]

Exhibitions

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In 2018, Perry had his first museum exhibition, titled National Lilypond Songs, at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The show featured depictions of the American landscape, and was considered as a major shift for Perry.[19] The style of painting was compared to the artworks of Andrew Wyeth and Grant Wood.[20][1]

In 2020, Perry had his second solo exhibition, Song and Dance, at Takashi Murakami’s Hidari Zingaro gallery in Tokyo, Japan.[21] In 2021, Perry debuted Sensemaking, which depicted quiet scenes framed through roadside vantage points and performances of costumed figures and contemporary symbols. The works centered around a broad theme of flawed logic while continuing his social commentary.[22]

In 2023, Perry presented a solo exhibition, Which World, at Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles. The artwork utilized images from crowd-sourced, public-facing archives like Craigslist or YouTube. Everyday objects were used to represent the effects of the digital age on day-to-day life in Perry's Craigslist series.[3][23]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Juxtapoz Magazine - Pat Perry's Americana and "Sensemaking" @ Hashimoto Contemporary, NYC". www.juxtapoz.com. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  2. ^ a b "Pat Perry". Hashimoto Contemporary. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  3. ^ a b "Juxtapoz Magazine - New Versions of Old Stories: Pat Perry on Authenticity, the Supernatural, and Trees". www.juxtapoz.com. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  4. ^ "Pat Perry". Communication Arts. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  5. ^ Mullen, Victoria (2013-02-28). "Pat Perry: Art by Experience". Rapid Growth. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  6. ^ Jobson, Christopher (2015-02-20). "Visually Arresting New Sketchbook Spreads and Drawings by Pat Perry". Colossal. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  7. ^ "PHOTOS: Pat Perry's Calculated Surrealism". HuffPost. 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  8. ^ Moretto, Mario (2012-12-09). "Beehive Collective adds giant poster to anti-globalization arsenal". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  9. ^ "'Crystal Ship' festival kicks off in Ostend adding twenty new frescoes to the city". The Brussels Times. 8 April 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Maputo, Mozambique & Miami, Florida USA". One Blue Sky Project. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  11. ^ "Pat Perry: City Square". Victoria's Big Build: Creative Program - Pat Perry. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  12. ^ "Pat Perry's first mural in Sweden". Street Art News. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  13. ^ a b "Artist Spotlight Pat Perry". Ann Arbor Art Center. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  14. ^ Gillen, Doug; Pricco, Evan; Perry, Pat. "Radio Juxtapoz, ep 095: Pat Perry in Ferizaj, Kosovo". Radio Juxtapose. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  15. ^ Staugaitis, Laura (2019-07-26). "Two Collaborative Murals by Pat Perry and Local Schoolchildren Connect Communities in Iraq and Maine". Colossal. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  16. ^ Hooper, Ryan Patrick. "As Murals in the Market expands, painter Pat Perry puts a focus on the neighborhoods". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  17. ^ Webb, Carolyn (2019-10-30). "'Playful' mega-mural honours our artists ... and construction workers". The Age. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  18. ^ "Two-story mural coming to the Foundry in Cleveland's Flats". Cleveland.com (news and information). Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  19. ^ "Pat Perry - Hi-Fructose Magazine". Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  20. ^ "National Lilypond Songs: Pat Perry's American Landscapes Are The Perfect Sign of the Times". Juxtapose. 10 September 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Pat Perry "Song and Dance"". Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  22. ^ Ebert, Grace (2021-10-15). "Drawings and Paintings by Pat Perry Reinterpret American Stories with Tender Absurdity". Colossal. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  23. ^ "Quotidian Moments as Magical Subjects - Pat Perry Takes Over Hashimoto Contemporary | Widewalls". www.widewalls.ch. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
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